Moving to London

OK, I was offered and accepted a new job yesterday in London and now have to consider moving there.
I'd be looking at paying around £800-£1000 on rent so my request is to you guys who live there already, what areas should I look at?
Been checking out www.torent.co.uk but I don't have any idea if the regions I'm checking out are "nice" or not!

It's worth seeing if there's decent areas not too far from where you work if you've not lived here before. Commuting across town in the summer while all the tubes are fucked up is unpleasant to say the least, and commuting during the office rush isn't fun at the best of times.

Not bothered about size as long as I can fit in my TV and video game collection!
*lol*
And would have a preference to be closer to the middle but it's not a huge problem as long as commuting is not too much of a pain.

DevilsKebab wrote:
The new office is just on Old Street tube station.
So anywhere that has good tube connections would be fine.

I work just off Old Street & live in Finsbury Park. Been there for 6 years.

Despite what the media have said in the past (It's where the "Dodgy Mosque" TM The Daily Mail is) it's a really good place to live, especially if you're not too close to the station, which is a bit grotty because it's very busy. Also not too expensive.

Finsbury Park's got brilliant transport connections. Literally 10 mins on the overland train from Finbo Park to Old Street, plus there are two bus stations and 2 tube lines (Victoria, v quick into town, and Picadilly). Downside is you can't blame the tube if you're late for work.

They've just finished renovating the Park as well, which is really nice. Good pubs and local eateries too.

For that price range you should be able to afford a very nice, modernised - albeit small - one-person flat. You can even chop a couple of hundred off and still get something decent if you're able to look for longer.

DevilsKebab wrote:
OK, I was offered and accepted a new job yesterday in London and now have to consider moving there.
I'd be looking at paying around £800-£1000 on rent so my request is to you guys who live there already, what areas should I look at?
Been checking out www.torent.co.uk but I don't have any idea if the regions I'm checking out are "nice" or not!

Don't do it! People who live in London get stabbed by little kids all the time.

DevilsKebab wrote:
OK, I was offered and accepted a new job yesterday in London and now have to consider moving there.
I'd be looking at paying around £800-£1000 on rent so my request is to you guys who live there already, what areas should I look at?
Been checking out www.torent.co.uk but I don't have any idea if the regions I'm checking out are "nice" or not!

Don't do it! People who live in London get stabbed by little kids all the time.

I saw it on the news.

That's why I'm moving there...
I'm not happy with the lack of Daily Mail activity that goes on in Southampton!

If you're looking for studios or one-bedroom places, more than any other place I've lived, you'll be shown a lot of very crappy places being passed off as flats for the same price range as the genuinely decent ones.

Don't get dispirited though, the fact is that in this town a lot of 'landlords' don't really have a clue what they're doing or how much their place is worth and you can usually tell immediately how professional they are. The amount and degree of total crap I saw - some of which cost more - was depressing before I found my current one, where I'm very happy.

I live in Leyton, which has the central line - gets you into town in no time flat.

A bit closer in and you've got Stratford - starting to get much better. Some really decent pubs, couple of good restaurants, and again, great transport - overland will get you to liverpool street in about five minutes, plus you've got the DLR and the Central line.

Believe it or not, Walthamstow Village is really, really nice. Friendly atmosphere, decent pubs, great restaurants, really close to Walthamstow Central. You pay a bit more for living around there, but if it wasn't for the 'E' at the start of the postcode, you'd be paying twice as much.

Time Out loves it. For my money, it offers as good a tradeoff between cost and quality of life as you'll find.

I live in Leyton, which is more about the stabbing and the cheap rent. Still liveable, though. I've been here the best part of a decade and I've hardly ever been stabbed. (Well. Actually, never.)

Have you any ideas of areas you like? Do you want to live central, do you want a lively place, what do you like to do with your spare time, that sort of thing.

Ive always (since moving down 9 years ago) lived in North London. First Camden Town, then up to Finchley, then back to Camden, then to Muswell Hill, and now back in Camden. As you can probably guess I like Camden. Its vibrant, central, great nightlife, real buzz, and no chavs (instead theres punks, goths, mods, rockers, emos, drunks, crack heads and everything else under the sun).

I'm not a pub goer, I'm a rare breed of tea-totaller...
Camden has some appeal as I've been there a few times during the day when meeting up with various friends.
I'm very much into the whole metal/piercing thing anyway so would fit in pretty well...(am living proof you can have obvious facial piercings and still get a good job!)
Just was never sure what sort of area it would be like to live in.

DevilsKebab wrote:
I'm not a pub goer, I'm a rare breed of tea-totaller...
Camden has some appeal as I've been there a few times during the day when meeting up with various friends.
I'm very much into the whole metal/piercing thing anyway so would fit in pretty well...(am living proof you can have obvious facial piercings and still get a good job!)
Just was never sure what sort of area it would be like to live in.

My mate lived there. Loved it until a tramp (he presumes...) took to having a shit on his doorstep every so often. He got a bit tired of it after that.

First time it happened, it was discovered by his friends who were coming round for dinner. You can cook as much gourmet food and light as many candles as you want, but if your guests have to step over fetid tramp dung when they arrive, you're always going to struggle to create that mellow dinner party vibe.

(I'm sure that shitting tramps are pretty rare - it's just a gross story that I like to repeat every so often...)

Edit - Actually, I'm sure that shitting tramps are very common. Apparently even the Queen and Kylie Minogue have to shit. I was talking about tramps who shit on doorsteps being rare, rather than shitting tramps in general.

That's not stil going is it?? I remember speeding there a few times in the early 90's. You'll be telling me club dog/megadog is still there next.

You're not a megadog veteran too, are you?

I remember seeing Back to the Planet there. It took me years to work out whether the naked people on stage were real, or just a fragment of my acid-soaked imagination...

(Drugs are bad, m'ok...)

Back to the Planet? Fuckin' yeah! I used to live round the corner from the Finsbury Park pub where they held Club Dog (can't remember the name, its opposite the tube station). Megadog started on Holloway Road on the Poly campus iirc, before it got massive & they started touring. Awesome times!

Most aears considered 'rough' in london are only rough when you get far from the train/tube station or main street and into large estates.

I live in stockwell but just round the corner from the station and never had any bother and when I first move to england I lived in Leytonstone and again never had any bother.

/touches wood to ward off stabbings

My advice would be to search various websites like torent and gumtree for somewhere to live within 25 minutes walk from your job, being able to walk to work is a luxury that can never be underestimated.

You dont have to wait for or deal with any forms of transport and your life and evenings are your own once more. The money you save can be spent on fun things like games and ice creams for sunny days and you're doing a little workout every day.

Not to mention that fact you're so carbon neutral you fart fresh air and rabbits dive under your feet to stop you soiling your runners on the filthy ground!

Go Norf my son. I have lived in North London all my life (bar a few years in Bath) and would suggest you look to Highgate, Muswell Hill, Crouch End, East Finchley. If you can get anywhere near Hampstead heath then that's a bonus. As for Camden...if you are young and willing to put up with the crack heads fine..otherwise do what I always did and visit it for gigs/pubs etc then leave to more welcome climbs.